


Boyfriends Are Not Pets

by Skysalla



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, Missing Scene, cap 2 spoilers, filler scene, mission prep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 06:49:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2259966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skysalla/pseuds/Skysalla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>CAP 2 Spoilers/missing scene - In order to go undercover and find out what’s on the hard drive, Natasha must ensure both her and Steve are properly outfitted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boyfriends Are Not Pets

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little snippet that popped into my head. Felt it fit best as a tag style scene for cap 2.
> 
> Thank you Jess for fixing grammar. :D

Once Steve told Natasha about his narrow escape from SHIELD on his way back to the flash drive, she had insisted that they needed to go undercover in order to read the files Fury had sent her for. She took him back to an apartment Steve hadn’t known she had. Never once had he been invited to Natasha’s home before and he hesitated for a moment in the doorway.

The small one bedroom apartment looked like it had been furnished entirely from thrift stores, garage sales and other second hand shops and Steve stood transfixed on the stoop as he took in how homey and yet completely void of personal attachment the place felt.

The various pieces of furniture fit together in an eclectic and welcoming way, but the complete lack of photographs or other small personal knick knacks told Steve just how temporary this place was to her. He gave the room a quick scan and promptly turned around at the sight of a bra laying over one of the armrests of the worn sofa.

“You better get your ass in here before one my neighbors tweets a picture of you standing like a lost puppy in the hallway.” Her voice called from the bedroom at the back of the apartment and Steve quickly stepped inside and closed the door but remained awkwardly in the entry. “What size are your feet?”

“What?” He barely managed to react as she was throwing a shirt, hoodie and jacket at him on her way to the sofa. With a glance down at the clothes in his arms he realized they were all men’s clothes and much too big for Natasha to be wearing. 

She gave the sofa a shove with the running shoes she had changed into and exposed a pair of men’s running shoes that had been kicked under the sofa. “Try these on- Rogers! We don’t have a lot of time. Get changed.”

The snap in her voice was just enough to get him moving and he pulled the clothes tighter to his chest as he rushed into her bathroom. The small space hadn’t been cleaned in a while and as Steve maneuvered to balance his new wardrobe on the edge of her sink, he couldn’t help but notice the two toothbrushes sitting side by side in the cup holder or the men’s shaving cream that had been left open on the edge of the counter.

It was difficult not to smell the unmistakable odor of another man’s sweat on the shirt, but the stench wasn’t bad and Steve knew from his army days that the shirt easily had another two wears before it would have to be washed. The fit was a bit snug but he was surprised how well the hoodie and jacket fit and hoped whoever he was borrowing clothes from would understand the need.

He stepped back into the living room to find Natasha had turned the bookcase around to reveal a screen and keypad mounted on the back of it. “Put those shoes on. They should fit...or close enough.”

“What’s wrong with my shoes?”

“They’re too conspicuous. Combat boots? Really?”

He pulled the tennis shoes on as she slipped into the bedroom again and was surprised that they were a size too big. Whoever this guy was had pretty big feet, but given that his clothes mostly fit Steve, it seemed logical that their shoe size would be close. He wiggled his toes in the extra room at the end of the shoes, just like he used to do as a scrawny kid with Bucky’s hand me down shoes.

The sensation of toes in too big shoes was almost enough to distract him from their current predicament when Natasha was suddenly dropping a ball cap on his head and shoving a pair of thick rimmed glasses into his hands. “Put these on.”

“Thanks.” he muttered. Not wanting to hinder his vision, he took a moment to inspect the prescription of the glasses. They didn’t actually appear to have a prescription so he went ahead put them on with a shrug. She had pulled her hoodie up over her hair and was methodically taking apart a pistol. Since he had no idea what the game plan was, he opted to sit quietly and wait for her next instructions.

“Keep your face like that and it’ll stay that way.” He blinked hard and scrunched his eyes in an attempt to wipe what he was sure was a confused look off his face. “What?” A tie hanging off the edge of the kitchen barstool caught his eye and Steve fought to find his words.

“I..I didn’t realize -” He managed to tear his gaze away from the tie and back to her, “I didn’t realize you-” There was the bra again, still hanging right out in the open. He forced his gaze back down to the too large shoes and wiggled his toes to distract himself. “I didn’t realize you had a boyfriend.”

Natasha snorted. As if the idea of having a boyfriend was so preposterous that he might as well have suggested she was an octopus living on the moon. “I don’t have a boyfriend.” The magazine of the pistol clicked back into place as she finished her inspection of it. “I have a bird.”

For almost a minute Steve was genuinely confused at her statement and he scanned the room for a birdcage. His brain finally put together the purple toothbrush in the bathroom, the tie with little circles on it that he suddenly realized might actually be targets, and the purple hoodie he spotted when he trying to avert his gaze from the exposed bra a third time. She’s not being literal and his brain clicks not unlike her pistol magazine.

“Oh.” He says softly. “I - oh.” She is grabbing a go bag and heading for the door without looking back and Steve stands to follow her almost automatically. “Oh. I didn’t know you two - Good for you.”

The look she threw him over her shoulder was some mixture of annoyance and disbelief, but he couldn’t find it in him to respond as they stepped out into the hallway. “So, uh...Where are we going?”

“The mall.”


End file.
